Elastomechanical characterization of brain tissues.

The fluid-induced changes in the intracranial pressure which have important clinical implications are believed to be largely determined by the elastomechanical properties of the brain tissues. To define and evaluate the elastomechanical characteristics of the brain tissues a nonlinear hyperelastic hollow spherical shell has been employed to model the craniospinal complex for its fluid-induced intracranial pressure volume changes. The strain energy function proposed by Hart-Smith has been used to derive the constitutive equations. In 10 dogs, fluid has been infused in the lateral ventricle of the brain. The resulting changes in the ventricular fluid pressure (VFP) and the epidural pressure (EDP) have been recorded. The plot of pressure as a function of volume increases first, reaches a maximum, decreases, reaches a minimum and increases monotonously. The values of maximum and minimum pressures (pv max and pv min) due to fluid infusion are found to be, respectively, 42.4 +/- 15.4 mmHg and 33.1 +/- 12.2 mmHg. The pressure achieved the maximum and minimum values with infusion of 0.19 +/- 0.09 ml and 0.51 +/- 0.15 ml of fluid, respectively. The elastomechanical parameters of the Hart-Smith function that characterize the brain tissues have been evaluated by matching the experimentally obtained pressure-volume curves with the corresponding model generated curves. It is found that the agreement between the experimentally obtained pressure-volume curves and the corresponding Hart-Smith profile is satisfactory at a high inflation level but less so at the lower inflation level.